- Then Job replied:
- "listen carefully to my wprds; let this be the consolation you give me.
- Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.
- "Is my complaint directed to man? Why should I not be impatient?
- Look at me and be astonished: clap your hand over your mouth.
- When I think about this, I am terrified; trembling seizes my body.
- Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?
- They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes.
- Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God bis not upon them.
- Their bulls never fail to breed; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
- hey send forth their children as a flock; their little ones dance about.
- They sing to the music of tambourine and harp; they make merry to the sound of the flute.
- They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace.
- et they say to God, 'eave us alone We have no desire to know your way.
- Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What would we gain by praying to him? - But their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked.
- "Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?
How often does calamity come upon them, the fate God allots in his anger? - ow often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale
- It is said, 'God stores up a man`s punishment for his sons.'
Let him repay the man himself, so that he will know it! - Let his own eyes see his destruction; let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
- For what does he care about the family he leaves behind
when his allotted months come to an end? - "Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since he judges even the highest?
- One man dies in full vigor, completely secure and at ease,
- his body well nourished, his bones rich with marrow.
- Another man dies in bitterness of soul, never having enjoyed anything good
- Side by side they lie in the dust, and worms cover them both.
- "I know full well what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
- You say, 'Where now is the great man`s house, the tents where wicked men lived?'
- Have you never questioned those who travel? Have you paid no regard to their accounts-
- that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity,
that he is delivered from the day of wrath? - Who denounces his conduct to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?
- He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.
- The soil in the valley is sweet to him;
all men follow after him, and a countless throng goes before him. - "So how can you console me with your nonsense?
Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!"